The health secretary, Alan Johnson, last night called for a national movement to combat obesity, arguing that it did not help the overweight to be told their problems were all their own fault. Speaking to the Fabian Society, he laid responsibility at the door of what some have termed the obesogenic society - involuntary exposure to an unhealthy modern lifestyle.
He said: "Not every child is lucky enough to live in an environment that promotes good health ... not every family can afford to buy fresh organic produce from the farmers' market. In approaching this problem, we reject both the nanny state, which polices shopping trolleys and institutes exercise regimes, and the neglectful state, which wipes its hands of the problem and wags the finger in the direction of the most vulnerable families in the vague hope they will do as they are told."
David Cameron has said that people should take responsibility for their weight. But Johnson said the Conservative leader was following a Tory tradition that "would have been familiar to the Fabian progressives of the 20s and 30s and which was distilled to create pure Thatcherism in the 80s". He said Cameron had "delivered Tebbit's 'get on your bike' speech refined by PR experts - Chingford meets Notting Hill".
Stephen O'Brian, the shadow health minister, said one factor of weight gain was "clearly, people not making the right choices" on diet. But the government could also give information and support, and the food labelling system could be reformed, he said.
Johnson said it was "easy for politicians to stand on the sidelines accusing the impoverished, the fat and the excluded of only having themselves to blame.
"But before we evoke the Victorian notion of the deserving and undeserving poor ... we should take a moment to consider how complex these issues really are."
He called for a movement offering solutions at local level, with a campaign covering practical advice on exercise, diet, and children's sports.
Ahead of the 2012 Olympics in London, a consortium including Cadbury, Coca Cola, Kraft, Mars and Nestlé is putting £200m into the three-year drive, to which the government will give £75m.
